


Hardly Working

by DestinyFreeReally



Category: The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-20 19:35:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15541464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestinyFreeReally/pseuds/DestinyFreeReally
Summary: Karen recruits Frank for a late night liasion... digging through the Bulletin's archives in the middle of the night. Written as a warm-up piece but light-hearted enough to post just because.





	Hardly Working

    “Wait,” Frank hit his fingertips against Karen’s shoulder and they both froze. “Hear that?” They waited, listening.   
  
    “Two guards making their regular rounds?” Keeping her voice to a hushed whisper, Karen nodded, still listening for footsteps. Even the dark, Karen could make out Frank’s face from across the archive stacks by just the glow of her flashlight.    
  
    “Want me to shoot us out of here?” He half-grinned but Karen only offered him a barely amused glare.   
  
    Swallowing her own dry sarcasm, she froze still when the footsteps made their way to the archive room door.    
  
    “Get  _ down, _ ” she hissed through her teeth, pulling Castle by the shoulder down behind a shelf.    
  
    “I thought you were  _ allowed _ to be in here,” Frank whispered, and reached for Karen’s flashlight, clicking it off as the handle turned on the door.    
  
     “Technically?” Wincing in the dark, Karen whispered right in Frank’s ear, her breath against his skin spurred his adrenaline more than hiding in the dark did, these days. But Frank willed that thought away, as a guard stepped through the doorway to the paper’s archives.    
  
    Ten seconds of hold-your-breath silence later, the guard called the ‘all clear’ to his partner and closed the door behind him, leaving Karen and Frank to creep up from hiding.   
  
   “Technically?” Frank accused; Karen hadn’t  _ exactly _ mentioned that this after-hours work reconnaissance through the paper’s archives was  _ not  _ sanctioned by the paper itself, and once they’d broken in and started searching in the dark, Frank had his own questions that Karen kept evading.   
  
    “ _ Got  _ it!” Karen declared in the dark, and swiped her flashlight away from Frank and clicked it back on, to further examine her victory. Spreading her found articles across the floor, Karen kneeled on the faded linoleum tile, studying for a few moments. Turning to Castle with a satisfied smile, she added, “And getting permission from Ellison to dig through these files would’ve meant  _ explaining _ what I’m digging for. And why.”   
  
    Castle gave her a dry look and an understanding nod in the dark, “And nobody can know what you’re working on  _ because…” _ he prompted.   
  
    “Because right now I’m not sure what I’m looking at.” Gathering loose documents into neater piles, Karen knew it wouldn’t have been the biggest deal to pitch her hunch to Ellison. But until she knew more, until she knew everything in these new files, she wasn’t ready to float theories.    
  
    “And because this shit’s dangerous. Pissing off dangerous people is a hell of a risk, don’t you think?” Still keeping his voice low, Frank kept close to her in the dark as she rifled through a fresh folder. She looked up to glare at him.   
  
   “Really?  _ My _ line of work involves risk?” Her tone smarted as she tucked more files into the folder.    
  
    “My line of work involves kevlar,” Frank pointed back, and he thought about how sometimes he hated that they could both be right. Or wrong.   
  
    “My line of work involves the truth, Frank. If it also involves risk, so be it.” Stashing the folder of files in her purse, Karen heard herself sounding as stubborn and steadfast as him, or Matt. With a shrug, she thought about how sometimes her line of work also involved midnight archival runs and  _ technically _ stealing documents.  _ Borrowing them, anyway, _ she swore. “Think the guards have gone back to donut duty?” Karen lead the way to the door with a glance back at Frank.    
  
    He shook his head in the dark at her putting herself on the line for work, for  _ truth, _ but he knew it was one of the things about her that drew them to each other.    
  
    “I guess it’s time to find out,” Frank shrugged, conceding to her  _ truth _ for the moment; for the night.   
  
    Fishing her employee ID from her bag, Karen had her story ready in case they  _ did _ get stopped, and they started to make their escape.


End file.
